A citizen wrote after the Round Table discussion touched him

In the “Nature of Rain2009″ garden show Isupervisedtheinfo–center, and on this occasionwerealsosomepeoplefrom the Oberndorfsite. In this and onother occasions, I learned that youwere very popularas mayor, as adistrict administrator (county chief), I’ve heard less.

I run aspecialtynurseryinO…. that is well known in Europe. Several times it has been presented on TV(Bayern 3). We havebeeninvolvedinabout 20garden shows likeRain amLech.

For meas a family man it does hurt whenparents have their childrentaken away. I find theremoval of the children of the Twelve Tribes not justified, and it has lasted for more than a year now.

The reasonsfor my perspective I will explain in this letter.

On September 4, 2014, Iwasat a public eventat the Hotel Krone. Thepeacefultestimoniesby some of the concerned youthtouched meandled meto write this letter. Peoplebehavedintheir time of need in anexemplary fashion — andwithout hatred. As you canimagine, being a parent, it is unbearable, certainly, whentheir childrenaretaken fromthem!

Here are a fewreasons thatspeakto meto givethe children back to the parents.

Inthe broadcaston RTL, the children were punishedwith a rod, butno childwascryingforrealpain(which wouldsound different).

RTLmade dubiouscuts of the scenes afterwards, [not showing] that the childrenwere thentakenandcomfortedinthearm.

Once I wason acourtyard partyinKlosterzimmern. On this occasion,Ihad only seenhappyandwell-behaved children. If all thechildrenbehavedsowellin the country, your [job would be] lighter(whichyoucertainlywouldprefer) asDistrict Administrator.

If this high and senseless standard were applied to all children, then the Jugendamt (Social Services) would need a lot more workers. Also, they would need more children’s homes and workers.

Theremoval of the child, in my opinion,is not in thechild’s welfare, as indicated.

Thechildren suffer fromtheverysituationand are bullied by other childrenas “cult children”.

InGermanythere is no collectivepunishment.Socan a childbe deprived of his parents because ofbelonging to afaith community.2

Mr. Commissioner, you have the delegated authority thatallows youto take the role of amediatorinthis case. Pleaseseekdiscussions with theparentsandprovidethemwith social services. I hope for asensible solutionfor all involved, especiallyfor the children.

Just a note:

Iandmy familyare not among the Twelve Tribes, andI have not punishedmy childrenifthey saytheyarenottired. Butas a fatherI knowthekidssaytheyarenottired whenthey are verytired. Letterslike this arenotmy passionandIsee myselfintherarestcasesprompted so asto writehere.

In late 2013, our lawyer asked a very pertinent question of the German Constitutional Court. And it seems to have had an effect on the lower courts, because all of a sudden three of our youth were released. This was his question: “What this court has to decide is whether a youth, with nothing against her, can be taken from her parents, with nothing against them, simply because of their religious beliefs. Such a thing has not happened in this country since the dark days of the world war… and may it never happen again!” And it raises the legal issue of clan-guilt, known by the ugly German name of sippenhaft. And his question deals squarely with the gross illegality of the September 5, 2013 raid on our communities. Guilt is individual, not communal. We were all deemed guilty by association with one another. How tragic will be the consequences of this egregious (conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible.) violation of human rights remains to be seen. ↩